Shared Research Facilities and Equipment

The Cellular and Molecular Imaging Facility at North Carolina State University is located in 4115 Gardner Hall (North Campus) and contains a number of state-of-the-art light microscopes, including a Zeiss LSM 710 confocal. CMIF primarily serves the NC State community and is also open to scientists from other universities and local industries. The rates posted on our website are for NCSU students, faculty and staff. Please enquire about rates for facility users outside NCSU. Training and imaging assistance is available.

CDI’s goal is to catalyze the growth of creative industries in the Piedmont Triad through design-focused activity based on advanced technologies. Services in rapid prototyping and design in various media are available.

The Chapel Hill Analytical and Nanofabrication Laboratory (CHANL) offers access to a series of microscopy and spectroscopy tools as well as fabrication tools in our cleanroom. We are open to researchers from academia, non-profit labs and industry.

The advanced technology in each core facility provokes a collaborative environment in which researchers receive support in the design, implementation, analysis, interpretation and reporting of research. The core labs include comparative medicine, proteomics and metabolomics, molecular biology, the imaging facility (which is comprised of Histology, electron microscopy, and confocal microscopy) as well as an immune monitoring core. The availability of sophisticated, centralized resources offers investigators an exceptional research advantage.

The CMS DNA Analysis Core Facility provides UNCW faculty, students and researchers with the state-of-the-art infrastructure and expertise needed to generate and analyze DNA data for research and education.

The Comparative Pathology Laboratory’s core mission is to support the pathology needs of biomedical researchers in pursuit of natural and experimental models of human diseases. Located on the Clarkson Campus of the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, the laboratory is an integral part of the Center for Comparative Medicine Research, Section on Comparative Medicine, Department of Pathology, and the Comprehensive Cancer Center. The facilities consist of two major components: a full-service diagnostic and experimental necropsy suite and a histology and immunohistochemistry laboratory. Additionally, a wide range of professional expertise is available including veterinary staff pathologists and histotechnicians. Services include tissue and slide processing, and routine and specialized cytochemical staining. Finally, high throughput immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization services are available through customized protocols using a Leica Bond RX autostainer platform. The laboratory has over 25 years of experience working with nonhuman primate and rodent tissues and uses a fee-for-service guide to help investigators meet their histology and immunohistochemistry research needs.

The Informatics group of Duke's Center for Genomic and Computational Biology (GCB), in which the Computational Solutions core is based, operates, manages, and maintains high-performance infrastructure tailor-designed for the computing, networking, and data moving challenges arising from genomic science. This includes a high-performance computing (HPC) cluster (HARDAC) with large parallel file system storage attached, OpenStack and VMware-based compute VM clusters. Our infrastructure is used every day by researchers across schools and departments, as well as by cores within and outside of GCB. We maintain strong cybersecurity to meet the data protection requirements for PHI and other sensitive data.

The DHMRI bridges the research gap between academia and industry by providing applied R&D solutions for agriculture, nutrition, and health researchers in a customer-based, flexible, and collaborative environment. DHMRI applies a trans-disciplinary approach to solve complex biological problems. Areas of concentration include: Metabolomics, Proteomics, Genomics, Immunology, Cell and Biochemistry, and Bioinformatics. The DHMRI also maintains a state-of-the-art microscope suite which includes a Confocal Laser Scanning Microscope 710, Multiphoton NLO, a PALM Laser Microdissection system as well as several other microscope platforms. In addition, the facility maintains a 40k sq. foot AALAC-approved vivarium for small and large animal work. Collaborators range from academia to start-ups to Fortune 100 companies. Flexible business model from fee for service to shared risk.

The UNC Department of Chemistry Chemical Research Instrumentation Teaching and Core Laboratories (CRITCL) Mass Spectrometry core laboratory specializes in small molecule analysis. Our services include, but are not limited to, quantitative mass spectrometry, liquid chromatography separations, fragmentation and structural elucidation (MS/MS, MSn) mass spectrometry, complex mixture analysis, molecular formula confirmation (high resolution and accurate mass) analysis, & trace metal determination/quantitation. The mass spectrometry facility provides individualized user training for undergraduate, graduate, and post-docotoral scholars of the Department of Chemistry. In addition, the facility aims to provide the highest quality mass spectrometric services possible to members of the UNC Chapel Hill Department of Chemistry, UNC campus community and surrounding Research Triangle areas.

XCL primarily functions as a service crystallographic facility for the University and are actively collaborating with Department of Chemistry, Inorganic, Organic, and Material Division, Physics and Astronomy, biology, as well as the School of Pharmacy and the School of Medicine. The facility houses a single Crystal X-ray diffractometer, Bruker SMART Apex II, which is fully maintained by the XCL Director. Service includes SC-XRD structure determination and various PXRD techniques, and user training is available for both SC- and powder XRD techniques. Additional experiments at Argonne National Laboratory, SCrAPS – Synchrotron Crystallography at Advanced Photon Source, are carried out three times a year for samples that diffract too weakly using the conventional radiation source at the facility. XCL provides both client- and user-based services where clients enjoy the convenience of the service, and users gain privilege and flexibilities in instrument operation, data collection, and structure solution and refinement with or without the assistance of the XCL personnel. To become a proficient user, requirements such as passing the X-ray Crystallography course as well as instrument-specific and safety training and exams need to be fulfilled.